Weird bullet seating experience

[DamascusSteel]

Was making some 308 win for my dad, hornady brass with hornady bullets 150 gr interlock. Everything resized just fine nothing weird, all the measurements are good put some powder in and when I went to seat the bullets it went in partially and stopped. Took the die out and the seating stem out thinking maybe the wrong die was in but everything looked in order, tried a different piece with a different bullet from the same box and same thing. Thought maybe my chamfer wasn't enough so decided to seat anyways.. well this happened. Anybody have any ideas about what happened?

 

[std7mag]

My friend & i had the same experience with his 308.
We were trying to reload some once fired PMC cases with 110gr Hornady V-Max.
We were using RCBS dies.

Things wouldn't go in for nuthin!

When he got home, he tried the bullets in the Starline brass he got. Same bullet loaded just fine.

 

[golfer]

Is the seating die too far into the press? Maybe don't have it as far into the press and back the seating stem out all the way and start adjusting the stem back down until OAL is achieved?

 

[DamascusSteel]

Is the seating die too far into the press? Maybe don't have it as far into the press and back the seating stem out all the way and start adjusting the stem back down until OAL is achieved?

That's a good thought, I will check that out.

 

[golfer]

I smashed a 6.5 creedmoor once like the photo above, but one had a single wrinkle. IIRC thats what the fix was for me. I'd have to look at seating instructions, but hornady dies might have a slight different set of instructions than that of RCBS.

 

[LuketheDog]

Well, I bet it won't feed but I suppose it looks kinda neat...

 

[DamascusSteel]

I smashed a 6.5 creedmoor once like the photo above, but one had a single wrinkle. IIRC thats what the fix was for me. I'd have to look at seating instructions, but hornady dies might have a slight different set of instructions than that of RCBS.

I was messing with the lock rings so I probably did screw the die in too far and crushed the brass that way, I didn't think of that

 

[DamascusSteel]

Well, I bet it won't feed but I suppose it looks kinda neat...

It does look really cool I'll probably keep it

 

[ImBillT]

Hornady uses a universal seater that does not support the body of the case, and isn’t long enough to run he whole case body into the die with longer cases. The setup is slightly different than other brands. You have the die sitting way to low.

Remove the die. Insert an empty case into the shell holder. Lower the handle all the way, leaving the case at maximum height. Screw the die into the press until it you feel the case bottom out in the die. Back the die off 1-2 full turns. Back the seater stem out all the way. Insert a bullet into the case mouth snd run the case all the way up. Screw down the seater stem until you feel it hit the bullet. Lower the case. Screw the seater stem down 1-2 full turns. Raise the ram to seat the bullet. Remove the case and observe seating depth. Adjust seater stem from here.

Better yet, throw your Hornady seater in the trash and buy a Redding, Forster, or RCBS.

 

[Shortbowshot]

Yep, with the other guys. Back your die out. I've been on that trail.

 

[std7mag]

And the verdict is???

 

[DamascusSteel]

And the verdict is???

After I had screwed around with the my lock ring I had turned my die in too far, the next morning I went and used the same everything and turned my die back out and reset it with a piece of brass and everything worked out great

 

[Caseknife]

You were crimping the case mouth before the bullet was seated to the correct depth.

Pretty neat reminder for the reloading bench. Probably couldn't have done that any more uniform if you had tried.

 

[DamascusSteel]

You were crimping the case mouth before the bullet was seated to the correct depth.

Pretty neat reminder for the reloading bench. Probably couldn't have done that any more uniform if you had tried.

Yeah hindsight is 2020 but at least it looks awesome, almost makes me want to use seating dies with windows, which I have for my 6.5 but not the 308